Vinalhaven teacher and curriculum coordinator Rob Warren addressed the island’s graduates this year at their school commencement, stressing the need to learn as much as possible about the wider world. “How do we get our young people to take ownership in the future of our community?” he asked. “How do we teach them that time
Small turnout passes Vinalhaven’s budget
The Vinalhaven Annual Town Meeting was held the evening of Friday, June 24 at the Vinalhaven School. Roughly 65 residents attended the meeting, which is significantly lower than in years past. This may have been due to the lovely weather, or because two of the more contentious articles on the warrant had already been decided
PUMPED! Islesboro’s muscle cars invigorate their owners
Peter Coombs is an Islesboro excavator who would prefer driving his 1968 Mustang Fastback on Sundays to hauling shale in his dump truck. The four-speed Fastback was originally from the South, brought north by a NAPA franchise owner in Wiscasset who was making a business of buying and selling Texas cars. Coombs’s Mustang is a
Swan’s Islanders seek shopping alternatives after store fire
Swan’s Island residents lost their only general store after a fire ravaged both the store and the apartment above it on July 10. About 25 Swan’s Island firefighters responded but were unable to extinguish the fire before it destroyed the building. Firefighters from Southwest Harbor and Tremont also responded to the call. Selectman Dexter Lee
Windfall: The Navy left Winter Harbor a village’s worth of valuable real estate but few kids to fill the local school
“It’s always been a fishing village, that hasn’t changed,” said Bruce MacKay, 85, referring to how the 2002 closure of Naval Security Group Activity/Winter Harbor, the secret, low-key Navy base tucked away in Acadia National Park on the Schoodic peninsula, has affected the town of Winter Harbor. And MacKay should know: he was a freshman
New Museum Opens
The Islesboro Historical Society’s new museum building, built in 1894, has been a town office and meeting hall, and then a high school through 1954. In 1971 a society member requested the Town sell the building to the Society. One dollar sealed the deal, and the land and building were transferred to IHS. On June
Funding package could keep Boat School in Eastport
“The Boat School will stay in Eastport,” declared Dean Pike, the last remaining faculty member, after a July 15 meeting in Machias that included Maine Gov. John Baldacci and Bill Cassidy, president of Washington County Community College. Last spring, citing a funding shortfall, Cassidy had announced plans to move the Boat School to the WCCC
Mass Transit: Excursions show what a coastal train would be like
Something new, something old. Maine Eastern Railroad is providing excursions between Brunswick and Rockland, with stops at Bath and Wiscasset along the way. It’s not a fast trip but the scenery is varied and appealing, at least on a sunny summer day. You ride in refurbished Pullman cars built in the 1940s and 1950s, before
The Maine Sea Coast Mission Society Celebrates 100 Years of Service
On July 11, the Maine Sea Coast Mission held its annual meeting at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, celebrating its 100th year of service to Midcoast and Downeast Maine residents. The Mission is a non-denominational, nonprofit organization that offers church and pastoral support to island and coastal communities, medical assistance to remote islands,
Voters Cautioned
To the editor: …[L.D. 299] is a constitutional amendment that would allow new laws to be made that would treat waterfront land use for commercial fishing like Tree Growth land. While this would be good for preserving and increasing waterfront access for commercial fishing, it could increase the tax burden on others if the state